This plugin hasnt been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress. It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

Stop XML-RPC Attack

Description

Do you get a lot of brute force attacks, DOS/DDOS and spam, targeting the XML-RPC interface in WordPress? You could just block xmlrpc.php access in your .htaccess file, but that will also cause much of Jetpack to stop functioning as expected. Jetpack is based off a two-way communication between your server and Automattic’s servers, and that requires your xmlrpc.php to be accessible from Automattic’s end.

This WordPress plugin will block access to xmlrpc.php from everywhere, except the JetPack/Automattic’s subnets. On a regular basis, the plugin will poll ARIN and update your .htaccess to allow the subnets that belongs to AUTOM-93 (which is Automattic, Inc.).

Actions and filters

Use the following actions and filters to alter the plugin’s functionality.
You can easily allow access for other organizations and IP addresses, using the filters.

action: stop_xmlrpc_attack_generate_htaccess

Trigger this action to generate a new .htaccess file.
This action is triggered at plugin activation, by WordPress cron,
and when pushing the “update” button in admin.

do_action( 'stop_xmlrpc_attack_generate_htaccess' );

action: stop_xmlrpc_attack_remove_htaccess

Trigger this action to remove our block from the .htaccess file.
This action is triggered at plugin deactivation.

do_action( 'stop_xmlrpc_attack_remove_htaccess' );

action: stop_xmlrpc_attack_flush_cache

Data from ARIN is cached for 24 hours. This will flush the cache,
forcing fresh data on next .htaccess re-generation.

As a WordPress developer and hosting provider, I wanted to say Thank You for this great plugin! This plugin instantly stopped the XMLRPC attacks on the sites I host. Improving site security and greatly reducing the load on my server.